1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to character recognition, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for recognizing characters using a scanner.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a result of the continued development of electronic technologies, portable terminals, such as mobile communication terminals, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and portable game consoles, have a variety of additional functions aside from their respective dedicated functions. For example, in addition to a device required for communication, a mobile communication terminal may include a digital camera or a sound source player to offer a user a photographing or a music playing function.
An electronic dictionary function may also be provided as an additional function in the portable terminal. Presently, most portable terminals have built-in electronic dictionaries that users may consult for definitions.
An input device that is provided in a portable terminal typically has a limited number of keys or buttons in order to ensure smaller size and portability. Thus, sufficient keys may not be provided to conveniently input numerals and characters due to the fact that a plurality of numerals and characters are appointed to each key. Therefore, the time that is required for the user to input words using the limited number of keys may cause an inconvenience due to key manipulation.
When a user desires to find words using an electronic dictionary in the conventional portable terminal, the user inputs the related characters by means of a keypad of the portable terminal. Because of the inconvenience of key manipulation described above, the user may have many difficulties using the electronic dictionary.
In order to address these inconveniences, a new function has been proposed that photographs desired words using a camera of the portable terminal. The words of the photographed image are recognized, and the recognized words are looked up in the electronic dictionary. However, because a camera of the portable terminal typically has poor close-shot efficiency, the photographing is carried out at a greater distance than is necessary to capture the word. As a result, many words may be photographed at a time, and the user must then select the desired word from the photographed image.